"The point I am making is simply that those that from the safety of their own beds proclaim their faith are hypocrites. They all lose their faith when confronted with reality."

Dan,

I get what you are saying. I imagine that it is more than likely that I will die in some drawn out way, cancer or such. I cannot say whether I would give up on my faith, or grasp at everything apart from God to cling to life. I would hope not, and many do not, but in that nihilistic moment when everything breaks down before me and I realise that I am either facing my maker or oblivion, I cannot say how I would react. I am a weak individual at the best of times; I lived in the Middle East for a time and once found myself in an exclusive Shia Muslim anti-Westerner area by mistake. A place where a white boy like me doesn't go. Everywhere I walked people stopped what they were doing to stare. I am told that I was lucky that I wasn't taken. I know this - to be captured and tortured is my worst nightmare, and if someone was pulling my fingernails out, one after the other, I don't know whether I would denounce God to gain some respite - I hope not, but I haven't faced it yet. Well thinking about it, I am pretty sure I could last through the fingernails, but there are parts of my body that would be a greater test.

What I do know is that whether God actually exists or not is certainly not predicated on my ability to remain faithful.

Regards,

Blacknad.